The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce is upset at the federal government's recent decision to give $5.5 million in funding for a mining innovation centre at the University of Toronto.
The chair of the city's chamber of commerce, Brian Gatien, has publicly demanded the federal government provide Sudbury's Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) with equivalent funding.
“I feel it necessary to express the incredulous dismay of our members and that of the community upon hearing the announcement to provide funding to establish a mining innovation centre at the University of Toronto,” wrote Gatien in a letter to Tony Clement, the federal minister of industry responsible for the recent round of funding announcements.
“Your decision to approve this funding seems to manifest a lack of awareness of the long history of mining expertise in the community and diminishes the strengths, values and contributions the North has made to the overall progress of the province and country,” the letter continued.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty also received a copy of Gatien's letter.
CEMI president and CEO Peter Kaiser has previously said CEMI was ineligible for infrastructure funding because it didn't have any shovel-ready projects.
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